Photographer's Note

I spotted this colourful place in one of the backstreets of Muharraq (near Beit Seyadi) but I had no idea what it was when I was there or when I posted it to TE. I thought it was some sort of shop (one of the signs above the door says ‘Please Ring for Service’) but I couldn’t go in to check as it was closed at the time I was there. So I asked if there were any Arabic speakers amongst the TE community who could identify what it was from the close-ups of the signs on the door that I have posted in the workshop.

Salma solved the mystery very quickly – it is the office of a public letter writer.

I hope his letter writing skills are better than his exterior design skills :)

Hi David...
i was looking at this photo for like 3 mins ... trying to know what is this place.. and what do they sell !
Altough i read Arabic i couldnt figuer this out.... untill i found the small white tag next to the three colored circular signs on top of the door that saya "Letter writer"
in the workshop u can see it better :)
and its written also in Arabic in blue "writer" under the mirror.
And his name is written in black in the big sign at the top...

Hello David, this colorful shop is amazing, one chaos of signs indeed, amazing place, they love also the mirrors, besides the one on the shop door other mirrors are along the wall, I see their reflections, and also a lot of amusing details like the arrow that indicates the bucket for the wet umbrellas. Good selfportrait too.
Compliments, nice image full of interesting things to watch.
Ciao
Vinicio

Hi David,
I saw this picture before mystery solving by Salma.. What a peculiar place, we actually hve also this type of business in Europe, specially to write official documents or requests.... that school going kid, for whom this shop isnt a mistery, looks at it and maybe thinks and try bring his homework in there to be done!
Regards
Laurent

Hi David, what a marvelous surprise you got it for us. I saw already many movies with such letter writers but in my naive thinking I was convinced that such stuff doesn't exist anymore in the internet era. Dead wrong! Judging by the exterior of this shop I would think that he would be a great asset for Microsft to enhance Microst Word software with some fancy functions.
Regards, Peter

David you certainly come up with the most unusual captures as seen in this posting. The storefront strikes me with an amazing plethora of patterns and shapes one simply must stop and look for a while. And all for letter writing? Interesting to say the least. The workshop photos are interesting too. What caught my eye here is the blue and white containers on either side of the doorway. The color of each must mean something. Perhaps one for recycling and the other for waste like we do here where I live. Not too sure if that applies in Muharraq. Interesting for certain...thanks for sharing!